Improvisation on "Good Christian Men".

These are my first efforts to use the Hereford set. Not everything is as it should be; there's still a lot to learn.
But I'm getting the hang of it now, though it is VERY different from what I'm used to playing.

When you're playing BIG baroque organs like the Marcussen or the Utrecht samplesets, you always take 2 or even more friends along to pull the stops, because it's very difficult to do everything yourself, as the stops are layed out for esthetical beauty and not for convenience.

But playing an English organ you'd better be an octopus with a full four hands and four feet, imho!

Still: enormous fun to do and a brand new territory to discover!

I was pleasantly surpirsed by these two Rowley pieces and did my utmost to do them justice.

Hope you like them.

Alec Rowley (13 March 1892 – 11 January 1958) was an English composer and writer on music.
He studied at London's Royal Academy of Music with Frederick Corder, and later taught at Trinity College in the same city. He frequently performed and broadcast piano duets with Edgar Moy, and was widely known for his compositions for amateur forces.
His seven choral songs, A Sailors Garland, are full of good music, challenging enough to make rehearsals interesting. In addition, he wrote many pieces for solo piano and solo organ.
He was for many years the organist of St Alban's Church, Teddington and was a contributor to 'The Rotunda', the house magazine of Henry Willis & Sons Ltd.